My heart was heavy Tuesday when I heard that Jerry Falwell went home to be with Jesus. Though we never met he was always someone I admired and looked up to. People always ask me if my church (Liberty Baptist Church) is connected to Jerry Falwell because of our name, but it is not.

Today I was reading some of Dr. Falwell’s sermons on the Thomas Road Baptist Church website. This one touched my heart. The title of the sermon is Preaching to the Poor.

Here’s what he said, “…I believe that is one of the reasons God put His hand upon Thomas Road Baptist Church in our early days of existence. We had over 100 buses and faithful laymen who got up on cold, windy, snowy days to crank up old buses and drive all over Central Virginia to pick up children and bring them to this church. Most of these children were poor—some very poor—and they came from needy homes where parents were poor. They came from shacks, trailers, or inner city homes. Today, many of these children are serving Christ faithfully. I meet them all over America.

“Now there’s no disgrace in being poor, but in many of these homes of what we often refer to as “bus children”, their fathers spent much of their time and money on drinking and their children were neglected.

“Many of our bus workers had to go in the homes, dress the children, feed them and bring them to church. Here children were taught the Word of God and led to Jesus Christ.

“God looked down from Heaven and saw the faithful bus workers, giving up their Saturdays to visit in the homes of these children, getting up early Sunday morning to round up these children, sacrificing their time with their family and their money and their energies to reach poor children.

“I think of Mark Grooms, who used to be one of our bus workers. Today Mark pastors the Thomas Terrace Baptist Church a few miles from here, a church that is now running 500. As a high school student, he drove a bus over the Blue Ridge Mountains into Buena Vista, Virginia, every Sunday morning. He left every Sunday morning at 6:00 AM, taking him almost an hour and a half to drive our old bus over the mountains. He spent an hour picking up children, and driving back over the Blue Ridge Mountains and got back here at 10 AM. After the children had Sunday school and church, Mark Grooms rounded up his children into the bus and drove them back over the Blue Ridge Mountains to their homes. By the time he got back to the church, it was 4 or 5:00 on Sunday afternoon.

“When a high school boy spends all day Sunday rounding up poor children, it shows his heart is in the right place. That’s why God is blessing Pastor Mark Grooms today. And because of the dedication of Mark Grooms and hundreds of others like him, God sent revival to Thomas Road Baptist Church and many other churches like us. Why? Because God has a heart for the poor. God looked down from Heaven and saw the neglected little children getting saved. God knew we were not doing it for money, respect or to be accepted by the established Church. We did it to obey the Great Commission.

“The Lord is burdening my heart to do it again. Perhaps we will need different meeting hours. But, let’s all pray about this Divine opportunity.”

I admire Dr. Falwell’s passion for reaching the next generation. He loved young people - including the bus kids. I love bus kids too and have since I began working on a bus route when I was 13. May his words bless your heart today.